


dreamers

by smolghostie



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Nightmares, Past Rape/Non-con, and jessie is There For Him, its hella fluffy, james has a nightmare, shit man how do i tag this, um well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 16:05:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9392651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolghostie/pseuds/smolghostie
Summary: James has a nightmare about his memories of the past and his fears for the future.Jessie is in love and does her best to comfort.





	

**Author's Note:**

> so uh  
> yeaaaaa  
> this happened

_It was icy cold in the dungeon beneath the Kojiro mansion, yet James could barely feel the chill air. His body felt hot all over with the blood and pain and he could only open one of his eyes. That one was wide open, though, waiting for the next whip crack to shatter the cold, oppressing air and send another hot flame of pain through his body._

She _stood before him, whip in her hand, both hands on her hips, and he tried to step back but found himself against the wall. He choked back a pained sound at the pressure on the deep wounds on his back, yet relaxed the tiniest amount a moment later as the cold brick soothed the pain ever so slightly._

_She took another step closer and he closed his eyes, knowing what was coming back. “Well, James~ It looks like you aren’t gonna cooperate this time either, darling.” Her smile was too sweet and her eyes a pale, icy, uncaring blue as she put the whip on her belt and reached out, pushing him against the wall—_

_—and he landed in the dirt of the woods, the starlight mixing with the dim light from a crescent moon as he blinked up, meeting a deeper pair of blue eyes in a nearly identical face, but a face he trusted instead, eyes he loved instead of feared._

_This time though, Jessie’s eyes were dark with disdain as she pulled her hands back and placed them on her hips in the exact same way that Jessebelle had. “Don’t even bother getting up, James,” she spat, and he flinched at the way his name flew at him like a blow. He had heard his name coming from those beautiful ruby lips in that gorgeous voice so many different times, in so many different tones, but never before with that hatred and disgust. Anger, yes, but never hate._

_He looked away, unable to meet her gaze for the first time in years. Even if he could barely make eye contact with most people, and rarely for longer than a few seconds, at some point he had become okay with meeting Jessie’s eyes. But not now. Not this time._

_He saw a glint in the dirt beside him and picked up a few bottlecaps that had fallen from his pockets as he had hit the dirt. He ran his fingers over the edges of them, trying to find comfort in the feeling yet too scared to jingle them, the thing about them that soothed him most when he was trying to calm himself._

_“I can’t_ believe _how_ pathetic _you are.” Each word hit him like another strike from the whip, her tone sounding similar to the harsh cracking that haunted his dreams. “I’m done, James. As far as I’m concerned, you are unworthy of even being a member of Team Rocket, let alone my partner.”_

_With those last few harsh words, she turned and walked away from him into the night. He watched her go, eyes welling up with tears. “No… please don’t leave me… please don’t go…… No, please, please Jess, please don’t leave me……” But she didn’t turn back, ignoring his desperate cries._

 

* * *

 

Jessie was having a very good dream. An excellent dream, to be exact. She was standing at the altar, a priest next to her and the man of her dreams, and she had a truly stunning dress that flattered her perfectly. Everything was perfect, except for one thing. She could not for the life of her make out any details of the man.

She could tell his hair was a more unusual color and pulled into a little ponytail she found utterly adorable, but the specific color and shade of the soft locks was lost to her. His eyes were gorgeous, yes, she knew that. But were they blue or green or something else? And there was a specific sound he made….. what was it? It was something distinct, something she knew she’d recognize the instant she heard it, but what the sound was was completely lost to her.

The fact of the matter was the identity of this man was just out of her reach, and it was driving her absolutely up the wall. If she could just figure out who it was then this dream would be perfect. There was a feeling of rightness, of being at home, to him and if she could just figure it out…

She groaned, flipping over onto her back, before realizing that she was in fact on her back in her sleeping bag instead of in a beautiful church with those arching stained glass windows and… She sighed at the realization that she was awake now.

She laid there for a minute trying to figure out what exactly had woken her up, snuggling closer to James as she thought. His sleeping bag had been scooted as close to hers as it could be without being actually on top of her, and she was pondering this when she realized that what had woken her up had in fact been the snuggly partner in question.

He was curled up tightly, whimpering a little and letting out little murmured words in his sleep. There was a desperate fear in his voice as she listened worriedly, sitting up and looking at him. Her eyes widened as she caught a moonlit glint on his cheek, and she brushed it off with a gentle touch, her eyebrows crinkling as her worry deepened.

“No… please don’t leave me… please don’t go…… No, please, please Jess, please don’t leave me……” She froze, wondering if she had truly caught her name in his sleeping mumbles, or if had just been a trick of her ears. She looked closer at him, not missing how tightly he was curled or how hard he was shaking, and decided it would be best to wake him up.

Her touch on his shoulder was light as she shook him a little, then harder. “James? James, wake up.” He was unresponsive to her efforts but stirred a little right before she had been going to get his canteen and splash him awake. His bottle-green eyes were slightly puffy from crying as he blinked up at her.

“……J-jess?” His soft, anxious voice was as shaky as he was, and she felt her heart wrench at the sight of him. Before she could say a word to him, before she even had a clue what she should say to him, he attached to her, wrapping his arms tight around her as he sniffled. She blinked a few times and hugged him back slightly awkwardly. And when he spoke again, the glass words fell from his lips and shattered on the ground, as fragile as he was. “…I’m s-sorry for b-b-being so u-useless……”

She pulled back a little, cupping his face in her hands and tilting it towards her, appreciating in the back of her mind how cute the smattering of freckles looked on his cheeks. She bit her lip, feeling awkward and unsure of what to say, but determined to help him. “You aren’t useless, James. I don’t keep useless people around.” He flinched a little for some reason beyond her, and she mentally cursed herself for her wording. “I mean. You’re the kindest person I’ve ever met, and you’ve never left me. Even after that fight, you didn’t hate me. You were an awkward dork when we met up again, yea, but you were there and you didn’t leave. You stuck it out and look at where we are now!! We might not have much and our stomachs may be empty more often than not, but we’re free and mostly happy, aren’t we?”

Slowly, he brought his anxious green eyes to hers and nodded a little. “Yeah…… so… you don’t hate me?” The question posed was hesitant and full of fear for the answer, but she shook her head vehemently as a response.

“Absolutely not.” The sound of her words and the complete surety in them seemed to flick a switch in him, letting him go limp in her arms, giving a shaky little sniffle. Holding him with one arm, she reached over to his back and dug in it for a moment, pulling out a couple of bottlecaps and pressing them into his hands. “Here.”

A soft smile crossed his face and he began to play with them a little, running them through his hands and feeling the edges, before clinking them together. Cupping his hands, he shook them a little, listening to the jingle, and all at once the details of her evasive dream hit her. It had been James in front of her as she stood at the altar. James was the one who haunted her dreams. James was the one she loved.

She stiffened a little, making him look up at her worriedly. “Jess?” She met his gaze gently, biting her lip a little as she realized she had scared him a little. A comforting smile on her face, she pulled him close again, running a hand through his soft lavender hair. She could tell him later, a hopeful feeling in her heart that those feelings might be reciprocated—it was her name he had been saying in his sleep, after all. For now, she was here for him.

“It’s nothing, James. C’mere.” She held him tight as he played with his bottlecaps, still sniffling now and then. “You’ll be okay.” And she knew it was true, knew it was true for the both of them.

They would be okay.


End file.
